


Goliath

by Pegaltan



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dystopia, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 03:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20686586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pegaltan/pseuds/Pegaltan
Summary: Senju and Uchiha never reconcile. Konoha pays the price for its founders' quarrel.





	Goliath

Executions are public. They should name the village the bloody leaf.

Bodies fall like fat stalks of wheat. Prisoners breathe a sigh of relief at the easy way the tanto shaves through flesh. Last week had been a Root front liner new to the trade; too flashy and not enough thrust. A woman was hacked to pieces when she tried to run with half her neck.

"This is cruel."

Rin's parents were butchers. From dawn to dusk, they worked their little stall at the market place. Slaughter has been a part of her life before she became a ninja, the Sanbi. She's seen ducks that put up more of a fight than the man on the chopping block.

"This is wrong."

Her teammates try not to indulge her but it's bad; it's been bad the entire week. She's upwind from bodies but the scent of blood still kicks her teeth. Kakashi eyes her askance but she doesn't care. There are allowances to be had for one's teammates. And anyway, Kakshi isn't a ninja. Not really. He's a medic and they are not supposed to fight.

"We must make examples of traitors." Gai points out unnecessarily.

"It doesn't matter anymore." Kakashi says with disinterest. "It's over."

People say—she doesn't know what people say. They don't tell her anything anymore. She is the Sanbi. The three-tails, the window maker, the terror of the deep. Nobody thought she'd survive when Kiri planted their beast inside her but she did and now they don't know what to do with her. Sometimes Kakashi tells her things, outside things, but he's been distant of late. She knows he's worried about his father who is serving in T & I. Hatake Sakumo was a hero once. But it's one thing to cut someone's throat. It's more personal to pick through their minds.

So she shouldn't be as surprised to find Owl perched on her balcony like he owns it.

"Root." She says. "You're not my usual guard."

Owl tips his head in acknowledgement.

"Bear-san has been very naughty." He chirps, child-like in vernacular. Completely at odds with the image of a murderer.

"Oh god." She groans inwardly. Rin has no love for her guards. But they are familiar. They are not Root. "Not again."

At this rate, there would be no Konohans left to accuse of treason. Isn't it enough Kiri batters them from outside their walls and Iwa wants them off the map that they have to turn on each other? Why don't they let Kushina-san's nine-tails free and grind everything to dust?

"He's _loyal_ to the village. I'm loyal; we're all loyal."

Owl does not respond.

"Do you hear me?!" She snaps. "I'm loyal. Tell Danzo-sama I'm loyal to the village."

"Danzo-sama is the village." Owl corrects in an admonishing tone.

"No." She denies swiftly. "The village is herself, her people, their family, their friends. One man cannot be a village. Danzo is not a village; _you_ are not the village."

And she promptly pushes him off the ledge.

He doesn't expect it. It is the only reason she catches him off guard and for one glorious moment, she is treated to the sight of a Root agent flailing off her balcony.

In the beginning, there is war, war, wars to end all wars. A world of nothing more than flesh, blood and pain. A martial law is written, grafted deep in the bones of anyone with less than a fortune to by their safety. The strongest would survive, everything else was irrelevant.

(Maybe things could have been different; maybe two boys from opposing sides could have become friends, raised a village together and stood by each other's side to the bitter end.)

Madara is the last Uchiha to stand against the Senju. They piss on his corpse and build a village on top of his bones. The council cannot decide whether to destroy his clan or offer them a deal. Bloodline abilities are prized. Haven't they granted clemency to the Aburame whose secret techniques assured them a bountiful harvest? Had they not smiled when the Akimichi came because they were rich enough to buy the entire enterprise? Hadn't they married off their hero to an unmarriable maid with no prospects, no future because they wanted the secrets of the Uzumaki?

It is decided.

Tobirama survives the first war. Tsunade is kept from setting foot in the second and her little brother is failed repeatedly from promotion.

Orochimaru is killed in a border skirmish.

Hatake Sakumo gives up his sword.

Kato Dan becomes the fourth Hokage.

When Rin is fourteen, the Kiri get a hold of her.

After their initial meeting, Owl keeps his distance, preferring to watch from afar. In turn, she ignores him. She ignores him even when those around her sit up and take notice. Conversations dry up overnight. Acquaintances cannot meet her eyes. Thankfully Gai, taking the cue from her, has taken to challenging the Root agent to the most ridiculous contests ever conceived. What's worse is that Owl plays along. The only one who benefits is Kakashi who now has an outsider's point of view on handstand marathons.

"You have an admirer." Kakashi remarks because he's a brat.

She sticks her tongue out.

But like a wild animal inured to human touch, Owl caves and circles close. She complains about him to everyone who will listen—Gai, Kakashi, sensei, who is very busy and if the honorable Third could not curb Danzo's ambitions she doesn't imagine his successor can, Gai, Kabuto, Shizune.

Owl is unimpressed by her tantrums. She never manages to catch him off guard again. He's faster than Gai, he might even be faster than _Kakashi_.

"Stop following me!"

"Tobi has orders; Tobi is a good boy."

Rin narrows her eyes and files away the name for future reference.

"What orders?"

"Tobi must observe Sanbi's vessel."

She strikes out with a suiton. He dodges it easily.

So Owl stays with her. He stays with her in her daily routine, the few seek-and-destroy missions she was allowed, when she's _sleeping_.

Rin pushes back.

It's the little things at first. Superglue on the balcony, oil, sometimes paint. He never seems to mind the hot pink fingerprints down his ribs.

It escalates. Kakashi blanches at the sight of a Root assassin drenched red and orange.

"You're antagonizing a Root agent—of course you are. You're out of your goddamned _mind_."

"Shut up Kakashi." Rin says with vindictive glee. "He's gone isn't he?"

"He'll be back." Her teammate predicts darkly. "With _friends_."

"He's Root. He doesn't have friends."

Kakashi sighs.

Owl gets better at dodging her traps. He once even lets a hunter-nin eat a chalk eraser before putting him through the floor. It's violent and upsetting to see half her apartment caved in so she yells at him for a while. He has the gall to look contrite. The day after, he disappears.

It's like he was never there in the first place. She enjoys the peace. But, in the furthest corner of her mind, she misses Owl. Her friends have their own lives and necks to consider but Owl is entirely hers. It's been a long time since someone's voluntarily sought her out.

Rin looks at his empty perch and considers. The new agent, Boar, does not sit the way he does. He does not move the same. They have the same training but they are not the same person. It's obvious that Boar is new. His hair gives him away. It's the color of wheat fields, so bright it makes her eyes hurt.

Owl slinks back before she can get used to it. He doesn't volunteer where he's been and she doesn't ask. Their lives fall into a routine and sometimes she'll even share her dinner if he makes it through her traps. Their lives have been consumed by war. It's hard to get fresh produce in when it's not in season and Owl is far too skinny. She likes to think that he'd be grateful for the handouts.

She hums as she cooks. It's something to keep busy when she isn't acting the steel cudgel on enemy borders. Her team doesn't need another medic because of Kakashi's career change—Gai had been devastated when he announced it out loud like it was nothing—and there isn't a sane man or woman who'd let a _vessel_ lay hands on them for healing.

And Sanbi stirs just as she notices a draft. When people think of turtles, they imagine slow clumsy things. But turtles are remarkable creatures. They have a great sense of smell and tactility. Her hearing isn't great but Sanbi makes her skin all but impenetrable. She flings her pot, and the hours of slaving over a stove, and when her attacker rolls to the left, punches him into the bathroom.

Tiles shatter on impact.

"Oh shit."

Blood sprays everywhere. It's Owl. For a moment, she's convinced she's killed him. Root agents are a dime a dozen and she probably did the world a favor by taking him out but Owl wasn't half bad for a stone-cold killer. He at least, wasn't afraid of her.

"Kakashi!"

"Rin!" Owl coos. "I missed you too!"

She's had training in medicine. All kunoichi did thanks to Tsunade-sama's influence during the Second Shinobi War.

"I can't fix this." She mumbles when she sees pieces arm bone stick out like jagged peaks.

"Dynamic entrance!"

She squawks when Gai puts another hole through her wall. As soon as he spots Owl, he kneels on a pile of leaves, offering to carry him to the village hospital. Kakashi stomps on his back and drawls, "Hold him and take his mask off."

"**_No_**."

Owl's black voice makes her teeth ache. Because somewhere deep inside of her, Sanbi trembles like trees caught in a storm. At her knees is a man who can strike fear into a tailed beast, Sanbi, the three-tails, the-beast-that-cannot-be-cut, the monster-of-the-mist-isles, and she cuff's the idiot's head with the heel of her hand in a well-practiced move that has Gai pouncing with an appreciative "such power, such grace!"

"Don't be stupid." She snaps; she feels like she's run a marathon the way her blood drums in her ears. Sanbi whispers at her to go, get away. Owl is dangerous and that is not something she hadn't known before. "You have blood in your hair; he needs to check for injuries."

"I'm fine."

She and Kakashi share a look; it's not the first time they've dealt with a shinobi who thought they knew better than what the doctor ordered.

"For that," her pale-haired teammate says pleasantly, "No pain killers."

"You can trust them." Rin translates quickly. "They're my teammates."

Owl can kill them all. Even her.

He raises a shaky finger.

"Tobi doesn't like you."

"Feeling's mutual." Kakashi retorts.

With a huffy pout, Owl drags the mask off his face.

Her first thought is, Owl is attractive. Having Kakashi pushed her standards to the point of unattainability but Owl is passing with flying colors, lean lines, wide-set eyes and ridiculously long lashes over clear skin. He doesn't look at all like the monsters history books make Uchiha out to be.

As Rin mops the blood from his head, Kakashi pokes at the bleeding wound with a spare kunai. In a low drawl, he mentions that an inch lower and the slash would have taken the cap off his skull. As it is, the wound is messy and drips constantly down his face.

Kakashi brushes off a handful of hair, she'll give him hell for it later, and draws a needle from his satchel. Owl hisses at the sight.

"Don't tell me you're scared of needles." Kakashi says, bored.

"Tobi is not scared!"

Liar, she thinks. But her training as a medic makes it hard to exploit this unexpected weakness.

"Rin," Kakashi orders. "Switch places with Gai; you can hold him down."

"I can do this Kakashi." She says firmly, irritably, wetting the towel just enough to scrub viciously at the sticky blood.

Gai doesn't question her. It's what she likes about him the best.

Kakashi gives her a hard, probing look before shrugging. He never got out of habit of bossing everyone around. Hell, it took a while for them to realize it's not normal to take a medic's lead. Kakashi's an unparalleled tactician. But it's not enough to change the fact that he's traded his tools for another.

When they're done, Owl says "thank you" with his eyes downcast and strangely bashful. He gropes for his mask before putting it on, just pressing it to his face and breathing into it like oxygen, even though no one knows who he is, what he looks like. As a general rule of thumb, Anbu do not have a long life expectancy. She can only guess the casualty rate for Root. Owl looks close to their age; he's probably outlived most of his squadmates already.

"That's the first time I've seen you not react to blood." Kakashi remarks later, washing his hands clean.

This is no idle comment. Sanbi sharpens her senses, hones them to blades. Her stomach rolls.

"I can handle myself Kakashi." She snaps.

"That's not..." Kakashi clears his throat. "I just wanted to say, good job."

Rin waits.

There was a time when she and her teammates were welcome to drop by the Hokage's office unannounced, needing reassurance or praise from their brave mentor. But it's been a while since they've talked. He's busy; everyone is busy.

Three days ago, she flattened an entire peninsula full of people and swept it out into sea. Owl was there, utterly fearless against the bright roar of the three-tails as it was set loose in the against Kiri pirates. The Root agent was not prey. He did not smell like prey. Sanbi knew prey. Owl had tasted more like an equal.

"I'm sorry about the guard. I wish I could help but Danzo-sama insists on your protection."

She looks up. Sensei is handsome, bright and charismatic in a way none of her boys, except maybe Gai, can be. The light catches in the pale strands of his hair and she looks, follows with her right eye, the weak eye, the one that settles in the wrong direction because she's too tired to push it back into place.

Her hair rises on end when she sees a pair of Anbu at the window, dog and ox, who do not wear the familiar red ink on their arms. Instead, their arms are knotted with scars. An unbroken ring wrapped around their left bicep.

Sensei notices her gaze with a casual wave of nonchalance as though he were not the Fourth Hokage and could easily overrule surveillance in his goddamned office.

Stammering, she gets up. She feels hunted. By Root. Danzo.

She is not prey.

Rin doesn't know what hold they have on sensei.

She can no longer trust him.

But she trusts Owl.

She trusts Owl to greet her on his perch, watch her under his porcelain mask, his painted eyes, when she's puttering around in the kitchen, starting the day with toast, runny eggs and coffee.

They have an agreement. This is not personal. Not for him. Owl's job is to watch the vessel; he told her as much when they first met. As he sidesteps a catches the bucket of water on an upturned palm, she wonders if his reports share the same bipolar vernacular in his speech or if his act is limited towards her only. She cannot see the stern, war-like Danzo tolerating idiocy from anyone, least of all his underlings.

"Yes! The springtime of youth!"

"He's Root." Kakashi stresses, picking the meat out from vegetables.

"I know."

Root are supposed to be unfeeling killers. Maybe Owl does not understand fear.

"Stockholm syndrome?" Kakashi asks, only half in jest.

"Hah."

Kakashi pulls his mask down, revealing a functioning set of lips and a small mole at the corner of his mouth. When Owl eats, it is the exact opposite. He pushes his mask up to expose the bottom half of his face and she wants to ask if the two boys coordinated it somehow when she wasn't looking. A secret conspiracy to drive Nohara Rin mad.

"You don't have to hide anymore." Rin scolds, gesturing with a spoon.

Owl hums. "Tobi is working." He replies by a way of explanation.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Rin is a good girl." Owl agrees serenely.

The Anbu swivel their heads when she arrives.

Everyone notices when a vessel is near. Her seals keep the three-tails trapped but it cannot stop the chakra from leaking like whispers of wind across the grass at night. A sweep of an owl's wing when it glides through the trees.

Rat cuts a prisoner open. She works quickly like a fishwife at a market and her straining muscles highlight the stretch of scars around her golden bicep. Until now, she's never been close to the ring of spectators around the chopping block. She watched because she was ordered to stand at every single execution and remind the people what would happen to those who betrayed the will of fire.

Rat leans back. She is unafraid of her advance; she is trained to be but.

She is human.

"Nohara-san." Hawk says respectfully from behind her. Owl's disappeared on her again. They've assigned her a new babysitter. A boy whose hair falls in black curls around his mask.

Hawk meets her gaze but does not approach.

It's not fear. Not as they understand it. It separates them from Owl who had been impulsive enough to sit on her balcony the first time they met, unafraid, unperturbed because he saw what she was, how dangerous she was, and knew how much more he could be.

She stirs the pot, dumping as much pepper flakes as she can before the entire thing turns bright red.

"I hope you're not hurt again."

"Tobi ducked, just like Rin-chan told Tobi to." Owl says cheerfully.

He's walking on the ceiling which is cheating; he's got leaves stuck in his hair and he smells like a week of hard travel.

But he doesn't complain when she pushes the mask away. She doesn't delude herself into thinking that she is his first. He's Root. Root are Anbu agents. Worse.

And now they were kissing. In her kitchen. Her cheeks burn when their lips touch. He's warm and when he opens his mouth, she tugs him close.

She was a medic once. Her tongue flicks across the roof of his mouth and slide down. She feels the smooth spaces that are almost like...

"I can't fix this!" The triagram lands on the table, heavier than any paper, scroll or ink. She barely gives it a second glance. Tongues aren't accurate tools for tracing but it's hard to mistake the bars of a cursed seal. She runs her fingers over hers every day. "This is Shimura Danzo's work. He'd know the moment I tried to take this seal _off_."

Namikaze Minato is a respected jounin in and out of battle. To his enemies, he is better known as the Yellow Flash for the technique he uses to move instantaneously across the field. In Konoha, the people trust him to keep the nine-tails chained. He is Kushina-san's personal guard and the hero of the second shinobi war. Everyone knows who he is. Rin isn't sure how Kakashi managed to arrange a meeting with him but it doesn't matter.

"What if you altered it?" She argues, planting her hands across the table. "Can you at least, tell me what it does?"

Namikaze lets out a sigh.

"You say it was on his tongue? It probably prevents him from leaking information about Root."

Her mind whirls and latches on the idea.

"He wanted to tell me something."

"Rin." Kakashi says. He looks like he is regretting his decision immensely.

She shakes off his hold.

"This is important." The blond jounin says.

"Yes."

Namikaze holds up his hands. He's had experience dealing with feisty, female vessels after all.

"Alright, okay." He relents. "I'll see what I can do."

"How are you feeling?"

Owl spits out the wad of gauze from his mouth. Blood smears his teeth pink and he clicks them shut when Namikaze skirts too close, nails gripping the chair arm in a stranglehold. In turn, the blond is almost timid as he wipes the blood off his hands, trying not to provoke him. Like if they got in a fight, Namikaze wasn't sure he could win.

"Your father did me a favor." He snaps moodily at Kakashi who flinches at the mere mention of Hatake Sakumo. "He was kind to me. He didn't have to be." Owl turns to her. "Danzo-sama wants you dead." He tells Namikaze. "Danzo," He chokes at the name "—wants both dead. He finds them _intractable_." Namikaze's lips quirk upwards. "And thinks that Sanbi could benefit from a stronger host."

"What dastardly fiend! How dare he try to steal the springtime of youth from our beloved Rin-chan?!"

"Why?" Kakashi demands. "Why now? We're at war. To unseal two tailed beasts at once would be disastrous."

"I was told by Hawk," The young agent with curly hair, "The Kyuubi has become close to one of the guards."

Namikaze blanches. Kakashi shoots him a sharp look.

Rin does not fault him. No, she does not fault Kushina-san for wanting a bit of happiness in their melancholy. Life as a vessel is hard. Even if she is kinswoman to Tsunade-sama.

She feels sick.

"So he wanted to make sure I wasn't doing the same."

Owl's gaze softens. She likes to think—she doesn't know what she thinks; she would like to think that he cares for her in a way. Root agents are amoral bastards and killers but she wants to think that he was fond of her. Enough to warn her.

"I was told." Owl's fingers skirt across his mask. "The unsealing will not take place in the village. The three-tails will be returned to Kiri."

She presses a hand against her lower stomach. Close to her womb as though comforting a child.

"He will not succeed!" Gai declares and she is grateful.

Owl says, "He doesn't have to. He just has to point her in the right direction."

"Why are you telling us this?" Namikaze asks gently.

For a moment, Owl's eyes flare red and she believes the stories parents tell to scare their children with. The Uchiha clan are the monsters in the dark, made of hellfire and darkness. Their eyes can read your mind and snare your heart. Only the Senju can defeat them, only the Senju can resist their siren eyes.

Inside of her, Sanbi is trembling. The impenetrable three-tails cowers before a boy whose lifeline is nearly at its end.

"Danzo cannot be dethroned. Konoha is lost. You will run. You will run and you will take my family with you."

"So that's it then."

Spices will be hard to come by outside the walls. She begins to pour them, separate, inside smoke bombs. Hopefully, she won't toss them at enemies by mistake. Owl silently takes the filled cylinders and seals them with wax.

"Did you get what you wanted?"

It comes out more bitter than she meant it to be. Owl owes her nothing. He is Root.

"Rin-chan is mad."

She splits the table in two. Chili and pepper clouds the air and between coughing and tearing up, putting her head under the faucet just so she could breathe, she sputters, "Of course I'm mad! I'm furious!"

"Rin-chan is angry at Tobi?" Owl whimpers. "Tobi is sor-ry."

"Then why did you do it? Why me? Danzo has enemies. On good days, they're all he has!"

Owl discreetly rubs his eyes from under his mask before thinking better of it. Some of her spices were imported straight from Suna. He's not likely to have encountered them before.

"Tobi likes Rin-chan." And when she snorts her disbelief, he continues. "Rin-chan is nice to Tobi."

She blinks. A body-flicker technique at less than five paces is a waste of energy but Owl reappears in front of her, mask brushed with cinnamon, curry dyeing a halo around his head.

"Rin-chan isn't scared of Tobi."

It takes a week to prepare.

They are shinobi. Certain amount of cloak-and-dagger is required. Only this time, she is hiding in her own village, against her people because of the monster in her belly, grasping at a chance for a new life.

Only she knows, Kakashi knows, Gai knows, Namikaze knows, and Owl and perhaps his little family knows. Not even Kushina knows of their plans because it must seem as though everything is normal. Kakashi introduces Rin to Namikaze because he is an expert on seals. Owl plays chaperone to make sure nothing untoward happens. Every word they exchange is written and brought before the council. They find nothing; they cannot find anything.

She doesn't think about the friends they'll leave behind. The people. Soldiers who are mere children in her eyes.

On impulse, she reaches out and grabs Owl's inky hand.

Owl jerks as though startled.

"Rin-chan?"

She blushes.

"You're not." She coughs and clears her throat. "You're not scared of me either."

"Because Rin-chan is so bea-u-ti-ful." Owl exclaims with something akin to awe. Hopping backwards, never breaking contact, he tosses his head back dramatically and presents her with his ink brush. Its split ends suggest he should have gotten it replaced months ago. "For you!"

Her eyebrow twitches.

"Idiot!"

It's raining—which is good. Tracking will be difficult and Sanbi is perfectly at home in the rain. Loves it. It's probably the only one who does.

Kushina-san, the nine-tails, with her fire affinity, complains about her hair. She has tamed it into a thick ponytail but the color is distinct. They have to keep it covered. And despite not knowing all the details, Kushina-san is proving to be remarkably patient.

Hatake Sakumo seems surprised to see them all gathered when he arrives. Kakashi had given him no warning save that it was important and her teammate turns around to ask, "Where's Gai?" but ducks as Gai cheerfully lands in a puddle and splashes them with mud. Kushina-san almost loses it and Namikaze has to drag her off to calm her down.

Kakashi hisses, "Where is Owl?"

Doubt weighs her mind. What if Owl betrayed them and is waiting for the perfect time to spring a trap?

A shadow drops from the canopy. It's too small to be Owl and they raise their weapons to silence the Anbu before he can raise the alarm.

"Hawk?" Rin recognizes her temporary sitter. The boy tosses his mask as though it is filth.

"There's no time to explain. You must go, now!"

"No wait, Owl's not here!"

"We're not leaving anyone behind." Kakashi agrees to her considerable relief.

Hawk lets out a noise of frustration.

"Crow is missing! If he's been captured—"

"Who is Crow?" Namikaze interrupts.

She regrets not asking about this earlier. Rin assumed that Owl had children with some random Root agent except Hawk is too old to be Owl's son. Probably a cousin. Crow too. All of them. Relics of a dead clan.

Crow wears a white mask with a pronounced beak, black triangles inverted under his eyes.

Hawk takes a defensive pose and his expression is wild, eyes wilder. He looks like he is about to kill.

"They have Sasuke." Crow says. His mask echoes with the ugly hitch of his sobs. "I can't let you go."

Hawk roars, "Don't look into his eyes!"

"Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique."

Rin cries out when spikes are nailed through her limbs. Beside her, she can smell the stink of nine-tails leaking from Kushina-san and Sanbi begins to unravel from its cage inside her, gnawing at the edges of her seal. If she loses control now, if either of them lose control, it's game over. Two Anbu agents fighting can be explained away as child play. Two tailed beasts cannot.

"Leaf Strong Whirlwind!"

"Gai no!"

Blood sprays across her face and she shrieks in horror. Crow turns his mad eyes on her and Sanbi struggles frantically at the chains binding it to her. She can feel her stomach cave and her legs turn to jelly because she is a kunoichi of leaf; she knows the seals favored by Iwa. Explosion technique. Itachi wants to blow them all up. A little boy, scared, crying, a Root agent intelligent enough to know he can't take on the White Fang and the Yellow Flash at the same time.

Scars rip the stream of water snaking down his arm.

"Explosion Release:"

Owl arrives. He is bathed in blood. Crow stares up helplessly as rain-slick fingers clasp in a prayer. Through the rain, she cannot see either of them clearly. Owl turns around and in his eyes, in that single moment, she experiences an eternity.

Root is nowhere to raise children. He is born, he is cared for, he doesn't know that he is Uchiha yet. Danzo expects very little from him except obedience. There is kindness when he submits. On his birthday, he is given a still-kicking rabbit to kill, scars on his arm and a curse on the roof of his mouth. At night, his dreams are filled with screams.

He is soft. He doesn't like to be hurt. He cares for others though he shouldn't. Unknowingly, he gathers the tattered remains of his clan and calls them brothers. The three are close-not-close. They would hurt each other to save each other. Owl calls Hawk Shisui. He calls Crow Itachi. And they call him Obito.

He is sorry, he is so sorry that he hurt her and that he can't be with her. Sasuke is Itachi's brother, his blood brother, one that shouldn't exist because Uchiha don't have children, they die too quickly and they die hard.

And that is why when the edges of his commas turn sharp, she knows she has to stop him.

"This world is wrong." Itachi pleads in a broken echo of what she said one afternoon, watching a man's head roll from the top of his shoulders. He repeats, "It's too cruel."

The boy glows.

Obito hugs him around the middle and they... disappear.

The Sanbi rages for three days and three nights. On the dawn of the fourth, it collapses in the village center with its vessel intact. Strangely, despite all efforts to divert its attention, it never turned its mismatched eyes from Konoha. If people were more inclined to question the intelligence of a tailed beast, they would have thought it almost seemed as though it was trying to protect something.

And indeed, a week later when survivors have gathered and Suna shinobi, with their hawk-like eyes casually mention the absence of the Yellow Flash, the Kyuubi and the White Fang, the Anbu come to Rin, imprisoned in the roots of the village, making friends with bones of the earth, to demand what she has done.

"They're gone." She sniffles politely through a broken nose. Concussed, one of her hazel eyes appear larger than the other. Green. "You won't find them."

Danzo expresses his disappointment.

When they leave, she laughs alongside a skull that might have belonged to Uchiha Madara himself. She is chained, her neck his chained, her arms are chained and her feet are chained to trees that Senju Hashirama grew with his own chakra. Isobu slumbers uneasy inside her and she uses her knees to make the ground less hard to sleep on.

She hopes that everyone else made it out alright.

Danzo had known he had many enemies. He blackmailed Crow, Itachi, with his brother's safety, to betray Obito's secrets.

Rin doesn't know where Obito went or any of the others went. If they are okay. She figures the old man might have gloated a little if he'd caught any of them.

She cries because of Gai. Out of all of them, she never thought Gai would go first.

"Don't cry Rin-chan."

"Obito?" She croaks. "Is it really you?"

Her restraints click open. She winces as blood rush back into her limbs. It feels as though she had them staked even though Itachi's technique was all in her head.

"You're hurt." She protests.

Ashes flake off his fingertips when he cups her face. He doesn't have a mask anymore. Nothing to hide his ruined face. Her breath rattles as she reaches out, leaning into the still warm flesh and sticky blood that have congealed into a black wound. And he smiles as though he is glad of it. The fact that she is touching him. Even though he's Root, an Uchiha, and smells like cooked beef.

"Tobi didn't... I didn't want to wait."

"Stupid." She says, wiping her eyes. "It's not fair."

"This world is not fair." Obito agrees easily, carrying her in a bridal style. She yelps and automatically throws her arms around her neck. When he giggles, she only gives him a love tap on the back of his head because the explosion has clearly taken away his goddamned mind. "This world is cruel."

And it doesn't matter because they are both monsters.

Footsteps can be heard even through the meter thick doors that seal her jail cell. The lock disengages, the tree groans through the foundations as its roots are disturbed, the bones carelessly kicked away.

She feels his lips brush against her temple and tilts her head back, offering her lips instead.

His thumb presses the trailing edge of chakra seal, doubly enforced, and she shivers.

"Take us somewhere," she tells him. "Somewhere far away—somewhere no one knows who we are." And a hopeless dream. "Somewhere war doesn't exist."

"Okay."


End file.
